Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Mari Iijima, the cast of Cowboy Bebop will be performing this
Saturday at an event for Japan disaster relief! Fans in Southern
California come show your support for the country that has brought you
so much entertainment over the years!

While I was at MechaCon, Convention Co-Chairman, Jon Russo makde a great point about disasters in general as it relates to the chairty events like this. He said (paraphrase) that "just because the cameras are no longer rolling does not mean the need has stopped." He is 100% right!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tommy Yune made this post on the Robotech Forums today (Sept. 13, 2011) regarding some questions fans had from the NDK panel. It also has some interesting tidbits about the Sentinels as well...

* A&E has completed authoring the DVDs and is now manufacturing them for release on October 18, 2011.

* Codename: Robotech, the extended version of the "Gloval's Report"
recap episode, will not be part of the bonus disc set. However, Carl
Macek's audio commentary about the making of Robotech has been adapted
for inclusion with the alternate March 1985 version of the The Macross
Saga episodes.

* To clarify, the alternate March 1985 version of the Robotech episodes
are not the old audio mix that had been previously released on home
video up until the ADV Legacy box sets. This is an even older version of
the episodes that had been released for the original broadcast only in
spring 1985 and had never been released on DVD.

* There are challenges to transferring from the original film reels to
HD, one being that the footage was originally filmed in 16mm, not 35mm,
so the materials have much more grain which would be pronounced in HD
resolution. Therefore, this is something we're still working on -- the
ideal is for the restoration technology to improve and costs to come
down to hit a sweet spot for consumers.

* For those of you who prefer the older mono sound effects over the 5.1
mix, audio engineer Bob LaCivita has recommended turning down all the
left/right/surround channels on your 5.1 surround tuner and leaving on
only the center channel. For a little more "impact" to the playback, you
can optionally leave on the subwoofer channel.

* An abridged version of Robotech: The Untold Story (the 1986 animated
movie first released by Cannon Films) is confirmed to be part of this
bonus disc set. Rather than being a loose collection of scenes minus the
Megazone footage, it has undergone some editorial work to be a somewhat
more cohesive standalone feature.

* An updated version of Robotech: The Sentinels is confirmed to be part
of this set. It is a new edit that adds some new footage and trims
others (mostly flashbacks) based on advice left by Carl Macek, as well
as being digitally remastered.

* The audio of the updated version of the Sentinels is a conservative
cleanup and noise removal of the original stereo track with no changes
to the sound effects. The Spanish audio track will also be included.

* The English-language Macross television pilots (featuring the Robotech
cast) will include both the 30-minute version previously released by
ADV and the extended 70-minute version that had last been released on
VHS and Beta in 1984.

* Other extras include new galleries, music videos, and other bonus video clips.

Robotech fans will get the latest information on the upcoming Robotech
DVD release from A&E home Entertainment at NDK this weekend, along with cool prizes from the Robotech Mystery Box. This will be the only time in 2011 that the entire Harmony Gold Robotech Team will be at a convention outside of Los Angeles.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Robotech fan Maxley C Brooks Jr. has built a Lego version of the SDF-1 and will display it at Matsuricon for fans to enjoy. The Robotech Facebook Page has posted photos of Maxley's work and its quite impressive.